Washington — The Environmental Protection Agency is seeking comment on proposed updates to a standard outlining the criteria products must meet to receive a label indicating they’re made from safer chemical ingredients.
Products with the Safer Choice label “use only safer ingredients for people and the planet,” EPA says, while those with the Design for the Environment logo assist with identifying environmentally friendly disinfectants.
According to a notice published Nov. 14, EPA wants to create a certification for cleaning services that use Safer Choice- and DfE-certified products “to help protect workers that use cleaning products all day as well as the people who live or work in the spaces they clean.”
Other potential changes include:
- Renaming the standard to the Safer Choice and Design for the Environment Standard.
- Strengthening sustainable packaging requirements.
- Updating criteria for wipe products.
“The Safer Choice program continues to encourage safer and greener chemistry in the marketplace to safeguard human health and protect the environment,” Jennie Romer, deputy assistant administrator of pollution prevention for the EPA Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, said in a press release. “These proposed updates to the Safer Choice Standard will increase transparency, safety and sustainability in consumer and commercial products.”
Comments are due Jan. 16.
